[tied] Re: Vanir

--- In cybalist@..., "Alexander Stolbov" <astolbov@...> wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <tgpedersen@...>
> To: <cybalist@...>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 1:58 PM
> Subject: [tied] Re: Vanir
>
>
> ...
> But how did the Vanir (if they were indeed the Colchideans) dispose
> of their dead?
>
> Torsten
>
>
>
> [A.]
> I can not say anything about Vanir' burials.
> I don't think either that Vanir = Colchideans
> (the Onogur hypothesis seems more attractive for me).
>
> Burial traditions in the town of Vani in the middle of the 1st

millennium BC

> were the following (according to O.D.Lordkipanidze in "Drevneyshie
> gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredney Asii"):
>
> Bodies of dead rich citizens were laid in wooden sarcophagus placed

in a

> cell which was cut in rock and covered with stones. Burial

inventory usually

> consisted of golden and silver adornments, silver and clay pottery,

glass

> bottles for fragrance, huge bronze cauldrons.
> Horse burials also were typical for Vani. [Kimmerian influence ? -

A.]

>
> In other parts of Colchida the mostly spread tradition were

collective

> burials in oval pits covered with stones. The bones have traces of

strong

> fire. This is considered as an evidence of secondary inhumation

with partial

> cremation or using of ritual fire.
>
> In the North part of Colchida (today Abkhasia) inhumations in flexed
> position with Northern orientation were found. Graves with

cremation in

> the burial pits were also presented in Abkhasia of that period.
>
> Since the 4th cent. BC burials in pitchers became usual in Colchida.
>
> Don't know whether this can help.
>
> Alexander

That was very helpful, thanks. That means that if the *As- elite had
exchanged hostages with the Vani (note the way that the Roman general
Aëtius grew up: as a hostage among the Huns) they might have known
cremation burial too. We would then see a mixture of inhumation and
cremation, as in Denmark after 0 CE.

Also, the Yaz- went to Hungary. But that is Pannonia?

Torsten